(Reuters) - Investors put money into U.S. equity funds in the week through July 31 as they anticipated the Federal Reserve would signal interest rate cuts following its policy meeting, though an extended sell-off in tech stocks tempered purchases.

According to LSEG data, investors added a net $2.14 billion to U.S. equity funds during the week. But that was down sharply from the $5.7 billion in net purchases the previous week.

The U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, while signalling a potential cut in September.

Investors poured $2.1 billion into small-cap funds, remaining net buyers for the third consecutive week.

Meanwhile, large-cap funds attracted $2.69 billion in inflows.

In contrast, mid-cap and multi-cap funds saw outflows of $1.1 billion and $447 million, respectively.

Sectoral funds saw $480 million in outflows as investors withdrew $716 million from communication services and $513 million from consumer staples sector funds.

Utilities, and tech sector funds, meanwhile, attracted $564 million and $525 million of inflows, respectively.

Additionally, investors pumped $5.11 billion into U.S. bond funds, marking the ninth weekly inflow in a row.

They invested heavily in U.S. short/intermediate investment-grade, municipal debt, and general domestic taxable fixed income funds, allocating $1.62 billion, $1.11 billion, and $920 million, respectively.

Money market funds, meanwhile, saw $3.39 billion of net selling following outflows of $25.87 billion in the prior week.